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TF78 Air Rifle
AKA Qb78 or the SMK78
( Edited 14/9/13)
For those who do not know the TF78 is a very inexpensive air rifle, made in China and is a copy of an old Crossman model. Being Chinese it is heavy and built very solid. Chinese workmanship also being what it is the 78 range of air rifles really can use some tuning.
These air rifles can be used, when altered, to use either CO2 as its propellant or PCP...but not both at the same time. To actually shoot as a PCP the air rifle does need to be modded.
At the moment of writing only one place seems to stock the TF78 ( as it is called in the ad) and that is:
http://buygunsaustralia.com.au/guns.php?make=Tech%20Force
The company is Hi Power and its run by Jeff, who can usually be contacted here, on this site.
You Tube has heaps and heaps of videos on how the air rifle can be tuned. Some of them can be found here:
http://www.youtube.com/user/ArcherAirguns
or you can look here:
http://www.youtube.com/user/CompassecoAirguns
Neither of these places will sell directly to you. They do not sell or ship to Australia
The rifles can be bulked fill by the use of adapters from here:
http://www.bryanandac.com/Bulkair.htm
who do deal with Australia
To bulk fill you will either need to rent a CO2 tank from someone like CIG or buy your own on an exchange basis from a brew shop like Brewmaster. In the long term, and if you shoot a lot, then bulk filling is inexpensive shooting. You will need to buy a fill station and bits and bobs from Ebay as well. Any hassles, just PM me.
If you are not going down the bulk fill path you can get your CO2 from:
http://finewhip.cart.net.au/store/co2/12g-co2-cartridges/
Should you decide that you want to upgrade your air rifle and need new seals, well they come from:
http://www.woodfield-gcp.co.uk/
The TF78 air rifle has facilities for an air rifle scope. I have found a good place to buy these on a budget is:
http://www.riflesa.asn.au/price_lists/scopes.htm
but you can buy something like this as well:
http://www.ausarms.c...hp?subcat_id=13
It all depends on your budget. Please note that the scope does not have be air rifle rated as it is an air rifle with little or no recoil and behaves much like a normal rifle.
All air rifles shoot pellets in different ways. It is best to find what suits your air rifle and stick to it a good place for pellets is:
http://www.acme-firearms.com.au/ammunition/haendler-natermann-air-pellets.html
But you may just do as ell with any cheap pellets from your LGS. That is something you will need to find out for yourself and also will depend on what you wish to accept in the way of accuracy.
If you have a 78, well great. If you want to fiddle by yourself, thats fine too. Things are forgiving. A link to an exploded parts diagram is:
http://ukchineseairgunforum.myfreeforum.org/about5244.html&sid=3dd7d106bf96167feae597e2f057877a
This is the result of a search and lots and lots of pictures are available.
The final link is to that of another chat site, or forum site and that is:
http://ukchineseairgunforum.myfreeforum.org/forum4.php
Its a great site to visit and has more information about the 78 than you could ever think possible. You do have to be a member to use the site, but its free...just introduce yourself after signing up and you will be pointed in the best direction if you have any inquiries.
So they choices you have to make are great and varied. This little page here is just a beginning point. I have, I believe, pointed out heaps of places from which you can discover what the air rifle is capable of.
So if you get either the .177 version or the .22 version you have a great base from which to begin to understand this little gem of an air rifle. The rest is left to you and your imagination.
Paul
9/5/13
Hi...
Just another add on for my TF78 which basically turns it into a TF79, but uses paintball bottle instead of an 88gm cylinder.
The adapter is called a drop block and screws onto the existing air/CO2 tube on the rifle, then drops, or offsets, to give clearance under the barrel.
All you need do to install is just remove the old end cap and slide the new one in. The end cap on the drop block is placed so that all you do is tighten it up. I did this and I also put a little blue Loctite on it so it wouldnt work loose.
This is a drop block, well several with several views
The other side of the Drop Block is where you screw in the paintball bottle. You really need something a little smaller than I have. I have just 9oz bottles, and they do not have on/off valves. This means I have to use another adapter that allows on/off of the bottle and the CO2. This means length. The 9oz CO2 bottle actually ends past the end of the barrel and also adds weight. It makes the rifle too end heavy. I would suggest getting a couple of 4oz bottles with in-built on off valves. With this you could hunt all day with little issues. For aesthetic reasons you could get some type of extension as well for the barrel. Its a personal thing.
This is the drop block fitted to the rifle, with a bottle aside so you can get the idea:
The air rifle can go where you want it to go now without ever worrying about gas.
I have been fiddling all morning ( while she who makes my mind up for me was out shopping) and i have fallen in love with it.
Paul
24/6/13
Hi Again
Just thought it was time to add a bit of a shoe string to show whats going on with the TF78. So with 850 psi showing on the dial I shot the following
533
540
531
541
541
or an average of 537.2 at 10 degree C. It gives a spread of 10fps.
This gives just under 10 fpe. Not bad at all. This was using Gamo Pro Magnum 5.5 Cal and 15.43grains.
Let me talk a little about one of the characteristics of CO2. AS the temperature gets warmer the energy that Co2 can deliver gets greater. So at 10 degrees C there is plenty of room to improve as the weather gets warmer.
So lets compare that with the shoe string from another air rifle, The AR20. This is a target rifle that should be consistent, so one would expect a much closer spread.Like all dedicated target rifles it is .177
533
568
552
565
544
an average of 552 fps or 5.4 FPE
Amazingly that is an unexpected spread of 35 fps! How ever this rifle is to be shot at a range of 10m so its spread is acceptable. The weather is of no concern as the AR20 is PCP and was fired from a 300bar full tank.
Even though this is not a hunting rifle it is ok to kill paper at 10m and birds but not anything bigger.
The price of the AR 20 is near $1000, the price of the modded TF78 as it stands is $327.
Paul
8/7/13
Hi...
MY barrel extension/ air stripper arrived today, packaged nicely and safely, and its great. It fits very very snugly on the barrel and is also held in place by a discretely place by a hex grub screw.
the TF78 was shorter that the overall length of the air tank and looked terrible. I was unable to find, and am still looking, some 4 oz CO2 paintball tanks to stop this. An email or two with Matt and he solved the whole thing for me. He listened to what I wanted, saw what I needed and then drew up plans of what would do the job. Unreal service. Worth every cent.
AKA Qb78 or the SMK78
( Edited 14/9/13)
For those who do not know the TF78 is a very inexpensive air rifle, made in China and is a copy of an old Crossman model. Being Chinese it is heavy and built very solid. Chinese workmanship also being what it is the 78 range of air rifles really can use some tuning.
These air rifles can be used, when altered, to use either CO2 as its propellant or PCP...but not both at the same time. To actually shoot as a PCP the air rifle does need to be modded.
At the moment of writing only one place seems to stock the TF78 ( as it is called in the ad) and that is:
http://buygunsaustralia.com.au/guns.php?make=Tech%20Force
The company is Hi Power and its run by Jeff, who can usually be contacted here, on this site.
You Tube has heaps and heaps of videos on how the air rifle can be tuned. Some of them can be found here:
http://www.youtube.com/user/ArcherAirguns
or you can look here:
http://www.youtube.com/user/CompassecoAirguns
Neither of these places will sell directly to you. They do not sell or ship to Australia
The rifles can be bulked fill by the use of adapters from here:
http://www.bryanandac.com/Bulkair.htm
who do deal with Australia
To bulk fill you will either need to rent a CO2 tank from someone like CIG or buy your own on an exchange basis from a brew shop like Brewmaster. In the long term, and if you shoot a lot, then bulk filling is inexpensive shooting. You will need to buy a fill station and bits and bobs from Ebay as well. Any hassles, just PM me.
If you are not going down the bulk fill path you can get your CO2 from:
http://finewhip.cart.net.au/store/co2/12g-co2-cartridges/
Should you decide that you want to upgrade your air rifle and need new seals, well they come from:
http://www.woodfield-gcp.co.uk/
The TF78 air rifle has facilities for an air rifle scope. I have found a good place to buy these on a budget is:
http://www.riflesa.asn.au/price_lists/scopes.htm
but you can buy something like this as well:
http://www.ausarms.c...hp?subcat_id=13
It all depends on your budget. Please note that the scope does not have be air rifle rated as it is an air rifle with little or no recoil and behaves much like a normal rifle.
All air rifles shoot pellets in different ways. It is best to find what suits your air rifle and stick to it a good place for pellets is:
http://www.acme-firearms.com.au/ammunition/haendler-natermann-air-pellets.html
But you may just do as ell with any cheap pellets from your LGS. That is something you will need to find out for yourself and also will depend on what you wish to accept in the way of accuracy.
If you have a 78, well great. If you want to fiddle by yourself, thats fine too. Things are forgiving. A link to an exploded parts diagram is:
http://ukchineseairgunforum.myfreeforum.org/about5244.html&sid=3dd7d106bf96167feae597e2f057877a
This is the result of a search and lots and lots of pictures are available.
The final link is to that of another chat site, or forum site and that is:
http://ukchineseairgunforum.myfreeforum.org/forum4.php
Its a great site to visit and has more information about the 78 than you could ever think possible. You do have to be a member to use the site, but its free...just introduce yourself after signing up and you will be pointed in the best direction if you have any inquiries.
So they choices you have to make are great and varied. This little page here is just a beginning point. I have, I believe, pointed out heaps of places from which you can discover what the air rifle is capable of.
So if you get either the .177 version or the .22 version you have a great base from which to begin to understand this little gem of an air rifle. The rest is left to you and your imagination.
Paul
9/5/13
Hi...
Just another add on for my TF78 which basically turns it into a TF79, but uses paintball bottle instead of an 88gm cylinder.
The adapter is called a drop block and screws onto the existing air/CO2 tube on the rifle, then drops, or offsets, to give clearance under the barrel.
All you need do to install is just remove the old end cap and slide the new one in. The end cap on the drop block is placed so that all you do is tighten it up. I did this and I also put a little blue Loctite on it so it wouldnt work loose.
This is a drop block, well several with several views
The other side of the Drop Block is where you screw in the paintball bottle. You really need something a little smaller than I have. I have just 9oz bottles, and they do not have on/off valves. This means I have to use another adapter that allows on/off of the bottle and the CO2. This means length. The 9oz CO2 bottle actually ends past the end of the barrel and also adds weight. It makes the rifle too end heavy. I would suggest getting a couple of 4oz bottles with in-built on off valves. With this you could hunt all day with little issues. For aesthetic reasons you could get some type of extension as well for the barrel. Its a personal thing.
This is the drop block fitted to the rifle, with a bottle aside so you can get the idea:
The air rifle can go where you want it to go now without ever worrying about gas.
I have been fiddling all morning ( while she who makes my mind up for me was out shopping) and i have fallen in love with it.
Paul
24/6/13
Hi Again
Just thought it was time to add a bit of a shoe string to show whats going on with the TF78. So with 850 psi showing on the dial I shot the following
533
540
531
541
541
or an average of 537.2 at 10 degree C. It gives a spread of 10fps.
This gives just under 10 fpe. Not bad at all. This was using Gamo Pro Magnum 5.5 Cal and 15.43grains.
Let me talk a little about one of the characteristics of CO2. AS the temperature gets warmer the energy that Co2 can deliver gets greater. So at 10 degrees C there is plenty of room to improve as the weather gets warmer.
So lets compare that with the shoe string from another air rifle, The AR20. This is a target rifle that should be consistent, so one would expect a much closer spread.Like all dedicated target rifles it is .177
533
568
552
565
544
an average of 552 fps or 5.4 FPE
Amazingly that is an unexpected spread of 35 fps! How ever this rifle is to be shot at a range of 10m so its spread is acceptable. The weather is of no concern as the AR20 is PCP and was fired from a 300bar full tank.
Even though this is not a hunting rifle it is ok to kill paper at 10m and birds but not anything bigger.
The price of the AR 20 is near $1000, the price of the modded TF78 as it stands is $327.
Paul
8/7/13
Hi...
MY barrel extension/ air stripper arrived today, packaged nicely and safely, and its great. It fits very very snugly on the barrel and is also held in place by a discretely place by a hex grub screw.
the TF78 was shorter that the overall length of the air tank and looked terrible. I was unable to find, and am still looking, some 4 oz CO2 paintball tanks to stop this. An email or two with Matt and he solved the whole thing for me. He listened to what I wanted, saw what I needed and then drew up plans of what would do the job. Unreal service. Worth every cent.
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